Thanksgiving is kind of a tricky holiday for me because I'm Canadian. I always do something for Canadian Thanksgiving in October. But American Thanksgiving just doesn't hold the same weight for me. Our families aren't doing anything for that holiday, it's unlikely that we'd ever go spend that holiday with them. But, since this is where we live, I do want to be better at making it more of a "thing" for our family. I'm all for making family memories and making holidays special. I also really believe in the power of good food to unite people. There's something about families sitting down to eat food specially prepared for them on a holiday. So this is my first attempt and I hope that subsequent years see improvement. I kept our menu simple. I roasted a chicken, made mashed potatoes and homemade rolls and I roasted sweet potatoes and green beans. Conor made sure the girls came to the table in nice clothing and not in just a diaper (Greta) or in dress-up clothing (Holly).
We did a couple crafts (Holly's favorite thing in the whole world is crafts). The first was we made gratitude feather necklaces. I wrote down one thing we're thankful for about each member of our family. We all ended up with 3 feathers to string on a necklace with beads. The idea came from this blog, but I used paint chips for the feathers. This will be a yearly tradition for sure! And then after baths, but before dessert (messed up order?), I read a story about the pilgrims and where Thanksgiving comes from. While the story was read, the girls strung a bracelet as the story prompts different bead colors (blue - ocean, gren - land, brown - turkey, etc). That was a nice "bring it all home" activity. And then apple crisp and ice cream for dessert!
The best part about doing a chill Thanksgiving is that I really enjoyed the day with my family. I never felt stressed about food. We went and played at the park in the morning. It was a win-win. However, one day I want to put on a stellar Thanksgiving dinner. I'll just do my best to be super planned and prepared and then I'll never stress. Haha. Ya right!
